DRUG CZAR SEES CUSTOMS' TOOLS OF WAR UP CLOSE IN HOMESTEAD

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the federal government's "drug
czar," spends much of his time directing the war on drugs from Washington.
But Wednesday he visited the Customs Service station at Homestead Air
Reserve Base and saw some of his foot soldiers and their equipment up close.

"We're beginning to get the right tools in the hands of Customs officials,"
McCaffrey said, standing in front of one such tool: a state-of-the-art,
1,500-horsepower interdiction boat nicknamed Black Lightning.

"We have a huge drug threat coming up from the Caribbean and Colombia,"
McCaffrey said. "We have to do a better job of interdiction around the
Dominican [Republic] and the Bahamas."

Improving the Caribbean interdiction effort would depend on partnerships
forged with other nations, particularly Jamaica, east Caribbean islands,
Venezuela, Panama and Belize, McCaffrey said. He added that drug smugglers'
local presence was a problem that needed to be stopped.

"We have not adequately confronted Haitian smuggling into the Port of Miami.
We owe the American people a more effective effort," he said.

McCaffrey spent about an hour at the base in a closed-door briefing with
Customs, Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI agents. Then he examined vehicles
such as the interdiction boat, a P-3 sentry plane that uses advanced radar
to detect planes hundreds of miles away, and a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

Frank Figueroa, special agent in charge for the Miami Customs bureau, said
McCaffrey's visit gave him a keen understanding of how much the office is
accomplishing -- and how constrained they are from doing more.

"I believe we'll get more support from the Office of National Drug Control
Policy," which McCaffrey heads, Figueroa said. "He's also traveling to Haiti
and South America and seeing how their drug trade impacts South Florida. He
said he wants to come back and see our operations in the ports."

Al Tennant, South Florida director of Customs field operations, said
Customs' five-year technology plan continues to draw top drug policy makers'
support.

"[McCaffrey] wants to know what the gaps are, whether it's policy gaps, gaps
in the equipment available or a manpower gap," he said.

Earlier in the day, McCaffrey told the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce
Board of Governors that drug education at earlier ages was becoming more
important. He said many young people begin to use drugs from the time they
enter middle school.

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Fernando Almanzar contributed to this report.